Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v.3.02

Overview Of My Break So Far

Out for Christmas / New Years until the 5th.

Have watched several shows and movies:

• The Last Samurai
  
• Band of Brothers
  
• Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
  
• Naruto
  
• Witch Hunter Robin
  
• Last Exile
  
• Blue Submarine No. 6

Plan to watch:

• IRIA
  
• Memento
  
• Big Fish

Yeah, quite a lot, I know. :) Many days of boredom avoidance.

Have also started playing Battle Realms. Should be getting closer towards the end.

Comments

This was sent by someone using our "404 Page Not Found" web page where we say, "And you can help us. Please report pages you can't find to the Webmaster. "

comment: u r a big bag of shite

One interesting one from June.

Yeah I am trying to look at someon'e webpage but this stupid server won't let me. Ya'll suck!!!

This last one, I was able to identify the problem in seconds, but no email address to alert this person as to the error. So I told the site owner. Figure she told a friend who neglected to hold the shift key for the one character in the URL that needed it.

Part of the problem is that people think of the web as anonymous. They can say or do anything they wish because no one will be able to figure out who was responsible. A few simple commands can tell me quite a bit about who sent these posts.

LotR: Return of the King

Have been waiting for this for what, 4 years now? Great conclusion to the longest movie I've ever seen. (I consider all 3 parts the same movie and not independent.)

My butt hurt by the end. Blame that on the theatre's uncomfortable seat and my unwillingness to potentially miss anything by shifting.

My opinion? (SPOILERS)

Because Jackson left about 150 pages of material from the ends of Book III & IV in Two Towers untouched, the beginning of RotK had to cover these. It rushed and was really apparent things had to move quickly. Christopher Lee playing Saurumon and talking trash to Gandalf once more (how pippen gets the Palantir)? Gone. The dark walk of the Rohim through Fangorn? Gone. That Deunothor has a Palantir which corrupted his mind? Gone. The romance between Faramir and Eowyn? Gone. Frodo and Sam getting mistaken for deserting orcs and pressed into the line? Gone.

I understand this is a movie and sacrifices have to be made for the flow. In terms of movie's flow, I think this movie handles it well.

Dunno about it being significantly "better" than the others. Think because this is a 1,018 page book, the ultimate climax resides here. So the biggest battle, the baddest evils, and the worst deaths are reserved for these moments in the story.

Also, because there is so much to wrap up, a lot of the movie deals with finalitzing the story lines.

Death and Fear

Been thinking too much lately about death and my apathy towards it. (Started a post yesterday about this, but that was wiped. Probably for the best.)

WARNING: Contents are disturbing.

Normal reactions to death are crying, shock, or fear. Abnormal reactions are awe, pleasure, or happiness. Think apathy should fall in the abnormal category myself.

Have been exposed to lots of death. Pets have died. Animals lay dead in the street. People I know have passed away. In most all of those cases, I don't think my reactions were what I would call normal. As a young kid I recall picking up a squashed toad to see what it felt like. A toad received a pretty brutal and painful death at our the hands. Feel bad for that toad.

Also, as a kid I faced the likelihood that doing the just the wrong thing would result in my own possible death. Looking at a gun pointed at you by someone you know to be an excellent, angry marksman at the age of 7 puts a very real face on the possibility of dying. Those instances where I hear about police offiers gunning down someone because they thought the person was reaching for a weapon whip me back to this event.

On a couple of occasions as a teen, I contemplated suicide, specifically seppuku. Got pretty far into the ritual. That was a time of extreme irrationality and confusion and idiocy on my part. Suicide is not for me. Would rather continue the deep, dark spiral and reach new levels of depravity than actually take any quick solution. No, really... the reason I chose to live? I would have rather exacted creulty in revenge on those who so frequently proclaimed my dishonors than take my own life. Could not do that through suicide. So I had to live. Yeah, like I said, "extreme irrationality and confusion and idiocy".

Movie deaths do not in general frighten me. Mostly because they are.... well, fake. Because I know they are fake, I don't believe in them. Superhuman feats to accomplish a goal are awesome. Bloodbaths for the sake of seeing blood are boring. Sorry.

Over the years, I have mistakenly foretold about my eventual demise. So far, I have not been right. Strangely, I do not fear death. Pain and suffering scare me. Causing emotional pain to those around me beacuse of my death. Not the state of being dead. Maybe I need to have some guilt so that I can have a reason to fear it?

SH

They caught SH. In a hole. Without the wildcat fight to get him as he promised on Iraqi national TV. Okay...

Told someone Sunday this would be the prime story for at least the next week. Only halfway there. :(

Clarifications

Point of clarifcation...

"My goal for today" should not be confused with "My girlfriend today".

Thanks for your attention.

Seychelles Pics

Seychelles Pics

Gorgeous photos. Big sighs.

Seychellois

Is it possible I am Seychellois and just didn't know it? Have been reading about the Seychelles and getting even more infatuated. Just so much resonates.

I've always wanted to learn Creole spoken in Louisiana. In fact, any RPG character I created for a game based on modern cultures was spoke French, English, and Creole. All 3 languages are the staple of Seychellois culture.

The society is very homogenous. Lots of European and African mixes with even some Asian and Indian intermixing. Being mixed, I would not stand out nearly as much. Might be weird, but deep down I think it is something I think I'd love to experience. Lots of progessive socialists hope that eventually races would do this here, but in the Seychelles they have been doing it for a long time.

Temperature does not often get below 24C and above 29C. That is only 75F and 85F. Used to 30F in the winter and 110F in the summer. Something fairly contant would not be very entertaining, but it could be nice.

The government has a strong socialist bent. Which could mean strong schools and universal health care. The USA is so moderate that we just do not understand what it is like to have a government in one direction or the other. Nor would the USA deviate very far from the middle. Right or left, they are both in the middle. Have read about such governments, but have never experienced anything other than moderation.

Most people are Roman Catholic. My grandmother is Catholic. At one time I even attended a Catholic school. :)

Seems like a wonderful place. Maybe I should just move there? Mulling over sending an email to the ISP and web hosting company there that I am interested. :)

TCM! TCM! TCM!

Crystal Method's Legion of Boom comes out in January. w00t! Salivatin'! :) Launch has a video for Born Too Slow.

This inspired me to actually put content on the Media page I started. Will have lots more the add there pretty soon.

Friend recommended I check out Felix Da Housecat. Lovin that stuff. Need to listen to more new music, ya know?

Tests

I like tests.

In school, tests were about the only thing helping me do well. Never did my homework so had to do well on the test. Never had test anxiety; just went in an answered the questions. If the evaluation of students was based entirely on homework, then I'd have been screwed.

Personality tests are my favorite kinds of tests. Perhaps it has something to do with the fuzzy nature of personality? There are of course issues involved in testing personality. For instance, the typical skepticism, "Does this really test what it claims to test?" applies. Having taken many personality tests and conducted undergraduate literature reviews into their usage as an indicator of work performance, I feel comfortable picking apart personality tests. Questions appear leading to me now. Usually, I know exactly what it is a question attempts to measure.

Does this skew my results? Probably. For instance, the Keirsey Temperment Sorter is the one I know best. Can answer the questions to give myself 100% of any of the 4 factors. Only do this on tests I know. Don't approach new tests with a conscious agenda. After all, maybe this test will provide some new insight?

Usually I take personaluty test results as accurate but not. They have some "right" things and some "wrong". Many tests which call me shy make me consider the possibilty that I might actually be shy. Of course, I don't like tests that give me results I consider "wrong". A test that says I am an open book and have an outgoing personality is, well, wrong. That is part of why I think astrology is a farse.

Results which have something new that resonates are the best. Will study and think upon them to gain some better insight into just who I am. The risk is that many tests are utter crap. Believing in their results could lead me astray in figuring out who I am.

BTW, "Jala says hi".

Dragging

Was up a 4:30 AM to be in to work by 5 AM to work on the servers. Ugh. Now it is 3 PM. Should have left 1/2 an hour ago. The agony of being salaried.

Interesting job description at Yahoo:

Surfing
Surfing is to Yahoo! what the Dewey Decimal System is to libraries. In other words, Surfing is the categorization of websites. It also happens to be how Yahoo! began. Today our Surfing Team continues its passion for finding, evaluating, and organizing information on the Internet. They have a voracious appetite for learning about new topics. They are curious individuals who are skilled at intuitively and efficiently analyzing and classifying diverse, unstructured pieces of information across the Yahoo! network. Surfers are critical to the relevance and intuitive nature of information presented on Yahoo!.

Think I like the concept of this better than this "Technical" stuff I do now. Just like learning and playing with new things. That is why the Internet is so interesting to me. So much to absorb and many ways to do it.

Inter5tella 5555

is a DVD I probably will just have to get at some point. Even the title is too kewl.

Pre- Simul- & Post-Thanksgiving

Had a great Thanksgiving Break!

Left Wednesday, spent 10 hours driving to Nashville, TN for the Southern Regional Baha'i Conference. (Don't know about the Baha'i Faith? Check this out.) Ran into a few traffic jams, took a few wrong turns, and didn't stop to eat. :)

Thursday, it rained. We went to the conference and had Thanksgiving dinner with hundreds of people. Later, the conference started and things took off from there.

Attended great sessions, met lots of new people, and ran into dozens of Baha'is I've known over the years. The music was wonderful. The hallways and sessions crowded. Just a wonderful experience.

Pictures (full gallery):